Seeing is Believing; Believing is Achieving

“I don’t believe in the Law of Attraction. I don’t believe in God. I don’t believe one can learn to always control their emotional response. I don’t believe in reincarnation. I don’t believe in Islam, in Christ, in meditation, in trance, Buddhism. I don’t believe, I don’t believe!!!”

I’m waiting for someone to tell me they don’t believe in gravity.

This modern era we live in has been described as the time of the skeptic and skepticism. We are, supposedly, enamored with science and fact-finding. We want truth and facts, not faith or belief.

That description is wrong.

We have become a society of “un”believers. The vast majority of us have a narrow, myopic view of what is possible, of reality itself, and take a quiet, perverse pleasure in brushing off anything that doesn’t fit that world view as something they don’t believe in.

So I’m issuing a challenge, but before we go any further we need to review some definitions:

Fact:
1. Something that actually exists; reality; truth.
2. A truth known by actual experience or observation.

Opinion
1. A belief or judgment that rests on grounds insufficient to produce complete certainty.
2. A personal view, attitude, or appraisal.

Believe in: to be persuaded of the truth or existence of.

One acceptable definition of fact is something known through direct experience or observation and to believe in something is to be persuaded of its truth. Given these definitions, I want to encourage everyone who reads this to challenges his or her current beliefs. I want to bring back the era of the skeptic.

Skepticism: (synonyms) questioning, probing, testing

For a moment, or just for a particular subject, throw away what you think you know. The atheist can ponder the existence of God with new eyes. The Christian can study the teachings of the Hindu or Muslim. The Jew can ask if Christ was the Messiah.

But this isn’t limited to religion by any means… look into UFOs, hypnotic writing, energy healing, secret societies, love at first sight — absolutely anything you don’t believe in is fair game.

The goal? Try to prove that it’s true, that it exists. If, after a deep look into the matter, you cannot prove it exists (is true etc) then ask if you can definitely prove it doesn’t. Was there one story or case that might give it validity? Is there any way you can verify things personally? (by trying it yourself)

The point of this exercise? To expand your consciousness and your awareness. To create more open minds, more dreams and more possibilities when just a few more people say to themselves, “What if?” To reawaken the skeptic — by reminding us all that things can be investigated with purpose of proving the theory, idea or belief — with an open mind — instead of one closed to new ideas.

And for the blogs and bloggers I know and love:

Surface Earth, To Be Me, CuriousC, Mighty Morgan, Sophia, Catherine and Enreal

I hope you will join me in writing a post that the covers the result of challenging one belief!

Namaste.

*Photo from Patrick Wilken at flickr

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 7th, 2007 at 11:26 pm and is filed under Beliefs, Fear, Life, Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.